For comparison’s sake, Alex Rodriguez ($28 million), Johan Santana ($25.5 million) and Cliff Lee ($25 million) could make more money this season than the entire Astros’opening-day roster.

Some people might be alarmed by the Astros’ decision to trade away major league talent, thus cutting costs. Only once has Major League Baseball gotten involved with a team doing something similar: In 2010, the then-Florida Marlins had to agree with the players union to increase payroll because they were deemed to be violating the league’s revenue-sharing provisions. Coincidentally, that agreement between the Marlins, the league and union ran through last year when they began the season with a payroll north of $100 million. The Marlins’ payroll should rank in the bottom five during the upcoming season.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow seems to know what he is doing with the franchise and has a plan for this rebuild. The farm system, with the help of some of his trades, has rebounded from being one of the least heralded just last year to one of the five best in the game entering this season. So while the trades have looked like a lot of salary dumps, the Astros have acquired real value in return.

The team has done well in the past few drafts and while it hasn’t acquired any surefire stars in these trades, Houston has a lot of mid-ceiling pieces that add depth in the minors and eventually could do the same in the majors.

The Astros, who are transitioning to the stellar AL West, have scheduled their rebuild to be just about complete by 2015. That isn’t to say they will be playoff-ready by then, but that is when we should start to see the arrival of players who will take the team to the next level. That’s the hope at least.

Because the Astros appear to have a clear plan—the Marlins didn’t have a convincing one when the league and union slapped them for not spending—MLB doesn’t need to get involved here. Not only that, but the players the Astros have traded away were a big part of why the team has been so bad. Houston has finished below .500 the past four seasons and has lost more than 100 games in the past two. It isn’t as if the Astros have gone from contenders to doormats for the sake of saving a buck.

Fans, players and everyone involved knew the Astros were a ways away from competing when new the ownership group took over and Luhnow was hired. The strategy of spending big spending on free agents hadn’t accomplished much for years, other than inflating the payroll. The team scrapped that philosophy and rival executives have lauded this new one, because they know you have to build long-term success from the ground floor.